Accounting techniques in Korea: 18th century archival samples from a non-profit association in the Sinitic world

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Accounting Historians Journal
Vol. 33, No. 1
June 2006
pp. 53-87
Seong Ho Jun
ACADEMY OF KOREAN STUDIES
and
James B. Lewis
UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD
ACCOUNTING TECHNIQUES IN KOREA:
18TH CENTURY ARCHIVAL SAMPLES
FROM A NON-PROFIT ASSOCIATION IN
THE SINITIC WORLD
Abstract: Little is known about pre-1900 East Asian accounting tech-niques.
A double-entry method of accounting may date from the 11th
century in Korea, but extant commercial ledgers are no older than
1854. However, extensive accounts of cooperative associations survive
from the early 18th century. The Mun Clan Association accounts are
examined to reveal their organizing principles and accuracy. The ac-counts
demonstrate a highly accurate system that was intermediate
between single-entry and double-entry accounting. While they are not
from a commercial house, the accounts display sophisticated book-keeping
techniques designed to maximize rationality within a Confu-cian
moral economy.
INTRODUCTION
In recent years, the Academy of Korean Studies (Han’guk
Ch˘ongsin Munhwa Y˘on’guw˘on)1 has gathered and published
many private records and documents from post-1600 Korea, but
there has been little research on these documents from the per-spective
of accounting and economic history. This paper exam-ines
a double-entry method used in the accounts (1741-1883) of
the (Namp’y ˘ ong) Mun Clan Association (MCA),2 an organization
that is still active in Ch˘ olla Province. The MCA is representative
Acknowledgments: We are grateful to Anthony Hopwood and Elaine Tan of
Oxford, the Korean Accounting Institute, two anonymous referees, and the edi-tor
for comments and suggestions that helped to improve the paper significant-ly.
We also thank the Korea Research Foundation for supporting Seong Ho Jun’s
research.
1 The Korean name was changed in February 2005 to Han’gukhak Chung’ang
Y˘on’guw˘on, retaining the English name Academy of Korean Studies.
2 Please refer to the Glossary (Appendix A) for original script and characters.